A report from The Guardian says that Russia may lose the 2018 FIFA World Cup because they broke UEFA rules by playing Crimean teams in Russian competitions.

Let me get this straight. Russia isn’t losing the World Cup for ongoing racism in Russian stands. Russia isn’t losing the World Cup for ongoing homophobia from Vladimir Putin. Russia isn’t losing the World Cup for invading Crimea. Russia may lose the World Cup because of playing Crimean teams in a 1st round Russian Cup game. Reason number infinity that shows “the powers that be” at UEFA and FIFA are so out of touch with things.

In the article, it says that UEFA still classifies the teams as Ukrainian and the Crimean Federation hasn’t been accepted by the Russian Federation yet so therein lay the problem Russia faces. FIFA says that they will take no action if both Federations agree that the teams are Russian. FIFA is deferring to UEFA and will go with their decision and UEFA is urging for Crimea and Russia to talk it out and negotiate. So I can’t really see Russia losing the World Cup for this. If worse comes to worse, Putin will probably “convince” the Crimean Federation to claim the teams are Russian. Out of all the things Putin has done in the past, I can’t see him letting this go and leaving it to chance.

Like I mentioned before, this is just another reason why UEFA and FIFA are out of touch and why leaders like Sepp Blatter and Michel Platini are immediately despised by the vast majority of soccer fans around the world. We can go down a long list of ways Blatter and Platini (among others) followed the money instead of doing the right thing for the game we love. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I love this game, but I hate the people in charge.

About Phillip Bupp

Managing editor for 32 Flags as well as a writer for Total-MLS covering Sporting Kansas City. Look for Phillip on the Total-MLS Roundtable and feel free to follow @phillipbupp and @MLSTitleBelt, a project where the title holder must defend the title in every MLS game.